Sporting Lisbon vs Man Utd – Preview

Staying awake for 48 hours is really crap. It drains your brain to the extreme. That was the case with me, thanks to some truckloads of work that I spent yesterday asleep for over 12 hours. Hence some slacking off in the blog. I do have a real life too, apparently. So there.

So Sporting Lisbon hosts us today as we bring our hometown boys in Ronaldo and Nani. So let’s get to the preview before I run off to sleep, again!

Before the preview though, let’s share some news bytes related to the game.

Carlos Queiroz says that we will play a ‘cautious’ game but ‘play with ambition’. Now I don’t know how one can mix caution with ambition. You are either cautious – where you will be defensive or less certain of moving forward – or you are ambitious – where your players will be moving up the pitch trying to force the issue. Mixing caution with ambition? It’s like standing still with the ball at your feet, suddenly hoping that the ball comes to life and flies over into goal on its own volition.

Anyway, onto the game, as CQ said and with it being a European game, we cannot expect too much from a formation point of view. Although who would play upfront could be anyone’s guess. If I was forced to play a 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation I would go with Tevez on the left, Ronaldo on the right and Saha up on his own. Rooney would be on the bench for sure. I doubt he’ll be started straightaway keeping Chelsea in mind. Giggs, Scholes and Carrick will play in the centre of the park. (Barring Gibson, that’s all the central midfield we have at present!)

Elsewhere, Liverpool and Chelsea played out bore draws. We hope there wouldn’t be a repeat of our league performances, simply because we seem more capable this year against teams that attack rather than park their bus – and Sporting will come at us. Ronaldo will, probably for the first time, be cheered by the opposing team fans. Nani will also receive a good welcome.

I would hope Fergie plays a 4-4-2 with Tevez and Saha together. Nevertheless, I expect a good performance from the lads. Arsenal take on Sevilla in the other game today and it would be interesting to see how they hold up against another very attacking side.

Anyway I’m off for now… See you after the game. Discuss away in the comments

Prediction: 2-1 to United. (Ronaldo, Tevez to score.)